35-Acre L.A. Property Listed for $175M

A 35-acre property that was previously set to be the location for a controversial new Bulgari-branded luxury hotel has hit the market with a nine-figure price tag while its owners face foreclosure. 

The 15-parcel property, located northwest of Beverly Hills and east of Bel Air, is listed for $175 million, according to The Real Deal, which first reported the news. The seller is a limited liability corporation tied to developer and film producer Gary Safady, who for years had attempted to get the 58-room hotel project off the ground. The property is being marketed by The Agency’s Adam Rosenfeld and Feroz Taj, per TRD. 

The project had received initial approval from Los Angeles City Planning, despite a tug of war between its local supporters and opponents, though the L.A. City Council ultimately voted to rescind its support in September 2023 following some contentious public hearings. 

The 35-acre property includes the address 9712 West Oak Pass Road, which property records show is in foreclosure after the owner defaulted on $49.7 million in outstanding debt. Motcomb Estates, an affiliate of real estate firm Reuben Brothers, provided a $30 million loan to Safady’s company in 2020, records show. 

A representative for Safady could not immediately be reached. Rosenfeld, Taj and a spokesperson for Reuben Brothers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

If the saga and sale of a nearby chunk of land in 2019 is any indication, however, Safady may have to lower his expectations. 

A 157-acre property in Beverly Hills, dubbed The Mountain, sold for just $100,000 in 2019 after being marketed for $1 billion. Though, to be fair, the severely discounted sale occurred after much legal wrangling — it was eventually acquired by its lender, the trust of Herbalife founder Mark Hughes, who died in 2000. Yet just one year ago, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to seize the property, alleging it had been purchased in the mid-2010s with funds embezzled from the Kuwaiti government. 

The current status of The Mountain was not immediately clear, though the recent fight for control of the property is just a recent chapter in its decades-long history. It was once owned by the sister of the former Shah of Iran, according to the Hollywood Reporter, who had intended to build a palatial mansion on the land, before being sold to TV show host Merv Griffin in the 1980s. Griffin sold it to Hughes in the late 1990s for just $8.7 million. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.